The MAV, Museo dell'Artigianato Valdostano di Tradizione, is a must-see destination to get into the life of the traditional culture of the valley.
Thinking of the Aosta Valley is recall an image of iconic mountains, alpine tourism and outdoor activities: but this vision would be incomplete without all that represents the enormous historical and cultural heritage of this region, in which traditional crafts represent a real flagship.
Who does not know the traditional Fiera di Sant'Orso in Aosta, with its thousand-year history and the ability to attract tens of thousands of visitors every year, can not understand how strong and rooted is the link between local people and craft traditions.
The MAV - Museo dell'Artigianato Valdostano di Tradizione is a celebration of this identity and tells the story of a community, the relationship with nature, from which it comes, and the ancient knowledge handed down to the present day, of those who shape natural elements into works of art or common use objects.
MAV is not only a journey through history but also a window on the present, which combines tradition and modernity to project it into the future.
Do not expect to see "only" a museum: at MAV you will also find an educational center, temporary exhibitions and research activities, a must-see destination for those who visit the Aosta Valley and want to know this fascinating territory and its heritage of material and immaterial culture.
Discover more about MAV - Museo dell’Artigianato Valdostano di Tradizione❯
The new MAV layout: memory, matter, form, gesture and beauty
The MAV’s visit route consists of five thematic areas: a heritage of more than 1000 objects, from common artefacts dating from the 17th and 20th centuries to real works of art from the 13th to the 21st century.
The first section is dedicated to the exhibition of the Brocherel Collection, owned by the Museo Civico di Arte Antica in Turin, and is designed to prompt a reflection on the role of memory that transmits knowledge over time.
Jules Brocherel was a pioneer of the Aosta Valley ethnography, an avid scholar of historical and artistic heritage, photographer and divulgator: born in 1871 in Courmayeur he was one of the first to design a popular tradition museum of Aosta Valley, studying and collecting throughout the region traditional objects, artifacts that were eventually given to the Civic Museum in Turin in the impossibility of turning his project into reality.
The second room is dedicated to matter, and investigates the symbiotic link between the material that the territory offers and the craftsman who shapes it to transform.
The path then continues with form and gesture, which are combined with manual skills to shape objects from raw material: all qualities that are part of intangible cultural heritage whose artisans are the custodians.
The last space, dedicated to beauty, looks at the future and the ability of those who create to go beyond the present to project themselves forward in time, investigating this concept from the point of view of individual or collective aesthetics, as well as from an objective point of view.
A space that is not just a showcase of the Aosta Valley artisanal excellence, but also a deep introspective analysis on the evolution of a community that does not lose sight of its past and reinterprets it in a modern way.
Education and research: handing down tradition to the future
Alongside the exhibition's display area, MAV promotes an important activity and education for children and families: a knowledge forge where experience is passed on from generation to generation, and a flagship among the educational proposals of the Aosta Valley museum network.
Education to the heritage through active participation is in fact a fundamental part of the MAV's mission: in the Didactic Carpentry, a real workshop for children, even the little ones can experience their creativity and manual skills, learning and having fun at the same time.
The MAV also hosts a research centre that promotes knowledge of the ancient and contemporary history of Aosta Valley handicrafts.
With over 400 volumes of the thematic library, images, interviews and documents available to students and researchers, it is a major hub for research and activities in collaboration with universities and research institutes.
The MAV is managed by Ivat (Institut valdotain de l'artisanat de tradition), which promotes it through its brand "L'Artisanà": a dialect term that was once used by Aosta artisans to define the shop in the center of Aosta where they carried the unsold products during the Fair of Sant'Orso and throughout the rest of the year.
A territory of rare beauty that preserves local culture and tradition
Castello Fénis Ph Canva by Bogdan Lazar
We are in Fénis, a small town about 13 kilometers from Aosta, famous for its charming medieval castle dating back to the 12th-13th century: a monument of national importance that alone is worth a trip to this surprising corner of the valley.
Here nature is the undisputed protagonist, and it fits harmoniously in the urban context: a few steps from the castle, an extensive green area interspersed with a forest of birch, oaks and ash trees, "Tzanté de Bouva", houses a children’s playground and a cycle path 5 km long.
From here, there are also numerous hiking trails: a true paradise for outdoor sports lovers. The majority of the municipality, in fact, develops in the enchanting Valley of Clavalité, a territory characterized by idyllic alpine landscapes, small villages and glimpses of rare beauty.
The village of Fénis has an ancient history of millennia: inhabited already in Roman times as much of the Aosta Valley, it had on its territory mineral deposits and salt, even if the main resources of the local population were already in those times constituted by agriculture, livestock and handicraft.
In this context you can find the MAV: located a short distance from the castle, it is housed in Villa Montana and was opened in 2009.
In 2022 it was completely renovated, redesigning the vision of spaces and furnishings: a place that evolves over time just like traditional crafts, keeping firm roots anchored in the past.
MAV (Museo dell’Artigianato Valdostano di Tradizione)❯
